‘Valimai’ movie review: The ‘Amma’ sentiment ruins this otherwise thrilling Ajith Kumar-starrer

While ‘Theeran Adhigaram Ondru’ may have announced that H Vinoth could do action, ‘Valimai’ reaffirms our belief that Vinoth could perhaps be the best Indian filmmaker who knows how to write, choreograph and execute action sequences with a larger vision and purpose

Remember when Tom Hardy decides to join a small group of all-women rebels against the army of War Boys in Mad Max: Fury Road? Remember those absolutely gorgeous set pieces and action sequences? Now, imagine Tom Hardy walking up to Charlize Theron, narrating why he chose to join them with a sentimental backstory: that of the promise he made to his mother long before she passed away. Imagine how boring, how fake that movie would have turned out to be. This is exactly the problem that kills the H Vinoth-directed Valimai from becoming a daring action film. This is not a needless exaggeration to satisfy Ajith Kumar’s fans; Valimai’s stunt scenes are stunning. Absolutely stunning. H Vinoth is truly a remarkable talent. He is one of the rare filmmakers who understands and thinks through the action blocks before writing them down.

While Theeran Adhigaram Ondru announced that Vinoth could do action, Valimai reaffirms our belief that Vinoth could perhaps be the best Indian filmmaker who knows how to write, choreograph and execute action sequences with a larger vision and purpose. Valimai could have been that racy, out-and-out action film we have seen in a long time. But it is bogged down by narrative hiccups: a) it ruins the overall experience with atrociously-written sentimental scenes and b) sadly, it is yet another Ajith Kumar-starrer where the style supersedes the substance. 

Ajith is a rare ‘superstar’ who doesn’t seem to care too much about his ‘image’ and what the gatekeepers of Kodambakkam demand from him. It could be argued that he is, perhaps, the first star to break the on-screen image of a ‘hero’ with Mankatha, wherein he played a ruthless villain with flamboyance and without a moral compass. Which is why Valimai hurts more, for, it looks like a missed opportunity to exploit Ajith for a pure genre film. But more about the ‘Ajith’ problem later.

Valimai has a very generic premise; it employs a decades-old Good vs Evil trope. But where we get to actually see the flourishes of Vinoth is in the manner he does that. Kartikeya Gummakonda plays a Satan-like Wolfranga who exploits vulnerable youngsters, shunned by society as ‘failures’. He uses them to smuggle drugs that have already been smuggled into Tamil Nadu. In other words, they are Satan’s horses. And the person who has to stop them has to be a demi-god, right? In order to introduce this demi-god, Vinoth takes us to Madurai during the Alagar festivities. We get snapshots of the festival, but the actual Alagar comes alive through Ajith in the midst of thunder and lightning. The set-up and staging are so gorgeous that it leaves you wanting more.

That is another thing about Valimai. Every time we get a stunning action scene, it gives us this feeling that there is more to come. Which is why, even at 180-minutes long, Valimai feels like a great set-up for something big. And you feel cheated when it ends, rather dully.

If you are a fan of action, Valimai has three terrific stretches written into the proceedings. Even if these scenes play to Ajith’s strengths and reputation as a biker-racer, they are filmed in a manner where you could see the director’s vision to not settle for the ordinary. Valimai is also that film where the director, cinematographer (a fantastic Nirav Shah), stunt choreographer (props to stunt director Dhilip Subbarayan for those mouthwatering bike stunts), background score (Ghibran’s contribution is a huge booster, although the score is loud and overbearing at times) and editor (Vijay Velukutty) are in sync with one other.

The pre-interval stretch, which has people hanging in the air, crawling on the ground and showing off 360 degree skills, makes you wonder how good Vinoth is. Rather, how good Vinoth can be, if he were to make a pure action film. In case you hadn’t noticed, almost three-fourth of this review is about stunts. Because, Valimai looks like the film it could have been.